Another unstable person

The Egyptian government is being criticised for more than one reason, writes Doaa El-Bey

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Friday's attack on three churches in Alexandria which killed one person and injured several others was met with anger, disbelief and outright denunciation. It shed light on clear deficiencies in the security system in Egypt and brought up a number of issues the government must now tackle to avoid communal strife. Several questions, too, were asked: who can protect us from mentally unstable people, why are they not given proper care and how could a mentally unstable person who has blood on his clothes wander around the streets without being stopped? More important, is there a gap between Muslims and Christians and how can we keep the dialogue between the two religions open.

In its sessions that were dominated by the attack, the People's Assembly called on the government to meet such incidents firmly because they aim to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians and start sectarian strife. It also asked the government to mobilise all its resources challenged by the mentally unstable and extremists.

However, the government's claim that the perpetrator of the attacks was unstable was refuted. Wael El-Ibrashi directly accused officials and ministers of lacking the least sense of responsibility because they are used to covering for the real perpetrators and accuse mentally unstable persons instead. As a result, El-Ibrashi wrote in Sawt Al-Umma on Monday, such incidents will be repeated.

"Those who accuse such persons of committing major attacks are themselves mentally unstable because they are stirring up sectarian strife. And we are not mentally unstable to believe them," he added.

El-Ibrashi said there was a real crisis in relations between Muslims and Christians and called for changing the national curriculum and raising the awareness of people. "We need to deal with the problems that Christians are suffering from like building more churches and giving them the right to assume important and sensible posts," he wrote.

Abbas El-Tarabili wrote that Friday's attack showed that Egypt was possibly on the brink of a crisis that would affect Muslims as well as Christians. He questioned how one person with blood literally on his hands could take public transport between churches far apart without being stopped, and why some people who commit serious crimes turn out to be mentally unstable. He called for holding a national unity conference to be attended by all political, intellectual and social parties in society. "In this conference, we should discuss all the sensitive issues that are endangering the historic national unity between Muslims and Christians," El-Tarabili wrote in Al-Wafd on Monday.

He suggested that at the end of the conference a series of rallies led by Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, Pope Shenouda and representatives of mosques and churches should be organised in order to announce to the nation the recommendations reached during the conference.

Mohamed El-Sayed Said considered the attack as a challenge that could be more serious than the October 1973 War because it is a war against fanaticism.

Said wrote that the best strategy to contain sectarian strife was to draw a plan of action to face religious fanaticism. He emphasised that it was very important to realise that a traditional dialogue would not lead to conclusive results. "We need a firm policy in punishing those who incite sectarianism. It should be very clear that the state will apply the law rigidly. Whoever is inciting sectarian violence, even if he is an imam or a priest, will be severely punished, as if he had committed a crime against the nation," Said wrote in Al-Ahram on Monday.

The government was also under criticism for its policies in dealing with bird flu which took the life of a fourth victim early this week. There are also 10 suspected cases. The weekly magazine October raised the issue of the ineffective Chinese vaccine that has failed to contain the disease.

"In addition, it is known worldwide that the vaccine should be given to birds before the virus reaches a certain area. Thus the vaccine should have been given to poultry in Egypt when it reached Turkey to allow it time to work. But this did not happen and that was wrong," Ragaa Nagui wrote.

Nagui expressed hope that the government would vaccinate the birds before the emigration season next year to avoid this year's mistake.

The government came under severe criticism for the way it handled the sinking of Al-Salam 98 earlier this year which killed 1,000 people. A fact- finding committee report condemned the government for its failure to act quickly to save passengers and to develop a system that guarantees their safety.

Mustafa Bakri wrote in Al-Osbou that the report was clear condemnation of the government, reflected in its poor reaction to the crisis and disrespect for the lives of its people. "The report contains bitter and dangerous facts like leniency in saving lives, the absence of security measures on Salam 98 and failure to deal properly with the crisis."